Well girls might run the world in Beyonce's song.

But here in New Jersey, politics, not so much.

A new report from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University found major disparities between the number of women in the state and those holding public office.

And when you look at women of color, well, those gaps only widen.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz takes a look at the numbers and what women in New Jersey politics have to say about it.

In the history of New Jersey, Lieutenant governors, 100% have been women.

All selected to support men, white men.

Because in the history of New Jersey, governors, all but one has been a white man.

So it's not a shocker that this new report from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University finds that despite making up 51% of the state's population, women hold only 30% of elected seats across municipal, county, state and congressional offices.

So what's interesting is that for people who study this, this kind of thing, it is not a shocker.

Overall, at every level from the county level up, some county, state legislature and federal, statewide and federal white men hold over 50% of all the elected seats in the state.

But they are only 27% of the population.

And that's just so that's a huge gap in terms of representation relative to, you know, their share of the population.

Huge overrepresentation gap.

And no other group has that kind of over representation, nothing even close to it.

The survey had its limitations since most officials didn't participate and not everyone listed their race.

But the study found women of color were all underrepresented.

Asian American and Latinas in particular in relation to their share of the population.

That's an issue that educator and advocate Patricia Campos Medina works on every day.

And most frequently, she says the big obstacle is the party line.

We need to eliminate the the party line and we need to allow candidates to emerge on their own and put themselves in a ballot and run on their own merits.

Because what Latinas and Latinos don't lack in New Jersey is ambition.

What we lack is opportunity.

And the party line, which allows party chairs to select favored candidates for favored ballot positions and party resources, is controlled by.

Henal Patel is with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

The line created such a advantage over who gets who ends up in office and who gets to decide who has a line their party bosses.

Overwhelmingly white men themselves.

57% for Democrats and over 75% for Republicans.

To be exact, Former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg says the party line for sure is an impediment.

But even with the party line which is being challenged in court right now, the parties themselves need to be more proactive, she says.

Culturally, we're we're all well aware of it.

It's the way our parties operate.

Who is reaping the benefit of party activists?

Who are the lawyers who, with the town, the municipal lawyers, who are the Planning Board consultants?

It is that whole area where men have dominated the scene, and those are very often entrances into party matters and ways of having resources to stay involved.

Women win elections at the same rate as men.

They just don't run as often.

And that was really what motivated me to run, because I thought, if I want other women to run, I need to also step up and do it.

And I think sometimes even maybe party leaders or other people in the political arena don't understand that it's equally as powerful to have a woman candidate and potentially even more.

I think recent studies have shown that the public actually trusts women candidates more than men.

Tell that to those still running things.

White guys all and as voters, if you think things are a mess, maybe it's time to take a hard look at who you're voting for and what they've been doing for you up until now.

I'm David Cruz.

NJ Spotlight News.